Jackson Lake Road Water Project Is Underway

Awaited construction on the Jackson Lake Road extension project has finally begun for the Jasper County Water & Sewer Authority (JCWSA) after a long two years.

The project, being completed with remaining U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) funds from the multimillion dollar County Line Road project, was placed on hold in 2004 when a service delivery area legal battle erupted between Alcovy Shores Water & Sewer Authority (ASWSA) and JCWSA.

Frank Sherrill, consulting engineer for JCWSA, issued a report to authority members Tuesday evening outlining the start of the project with very few specifics available. With the work by D & J Construction just beginning, he said that next month’s update would detail how much pipe has been laid.

The engineer also informed the authority that last month’s presentation on the Cedar Creek project to the city council for a continued collaboration between the authority and the city appeared to be well-received by the council.
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Previously the parties had agreed to partner on a USDA emergency grant application for $500,000 to drill test wells for a water supply on the Cedar Creek property owned by the CKG partnership. That application was denied last month so additional alternatives are being researched.

Relative to the topic of future water supply, Ken McMichael informed the board of his attendance at a recent Walton County Commission meeting where he briefly introduced the possibility about partnering with them on the South River withdrawal project involving Thomas Brothers Hydro.

Mr. McMichael spoke at length about the possibilities involved with the withdrawal process and reservoir. He noted that Hoke Thomas of Thomas Hydro Brothers had reported to him that the test results from the river samples had returned with South River yielding better results than any of the other rivers tested.

In addition to approving the minutes and treasurer’s report, official action taken by authority members included authorizing Chairman Brack Pound to sign two separate loan contracts.
The first authorization given was on the Butts County Water & Sewer Authority proposed $15,000 loan for construction on the Hwy. 16 bridge project. The chairman reported that the local authority would present the Butts authority with a contract outlining an interest-free note for three years. If that proposal did not meet with the lender’s approval it would be revisited, said the chairman.

Also related to the Hwy. 16 bridge project, Mr. Pound was authorized to sign a note with the Bank of Monticello for the amount of $22,000 for completion of the project.

The executive director’s report from Linda Jordan included a review of the water line extension policy approved last month and a review of the service delivery area agreement proposed to ASWSA. Basically the proposed agreement grants ASWSA the area currently being served by that authority down half of the intersection at Jackson Lake Road and Hwy. 212 west.

County Manager Greg Williams has been acting as the intermediary for the two parties since the conclusion of the initial lawsuit and appeal launched by ASWSA over the service delivery map.
When Foy Bentley asked if the agreement was suitable to ASWSA, Mrs. Jordan said that she did not know but that the proposal had been provided to the county manager who said that he had passed it along to ASWSA last week.

“If they want to do something different than this, it is entirely incumbent upon them to tell us what they want,” said the chairman.
Mr. Pound said that JCWSA had approached ASWSA several times with options on the service delivery map and that ASWSA had disagreed with it each time without detailing what it was they really wanted.

The system operator’s report given by Tom Brazil included an update of the Jackson Lake Road extension project pre-construction meeting.
He also reported that 5,000 gallons of water was flushed last month as a result of a customer inquiry about the taste of the water. Including those flushed gallons, Mr. Brazil said that 1.2 million gallons were purchased from Newton County and just under 1 million gallons were sold giving the authority an 85 percent water usage for July.

With regard to the fire hydrant contract in dispute between the county commission and JCWSA, the chairman said that the county attorney was still reviewing the agreement which was deemed binding by the authority’s legal counsel, King & Spalding.